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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 13, 1914
Salt Lake City, Utah – Joe Hill on Trial for Murder on Circumstantial Evidence
State of Utah vs. Joseph Hillstrom
Joe Hill, famous I. W. W. songwriter, went on trial June 10th in Salt Lake City, Utah. Fellow Worker Joe Hill is on trial for his life, having been charged with the murder of J. G. Morrison who was shot and killed, along with his son, during the robbery of his grocery store on the night of January 10, 1914. Joe Hill was arrested three days later. He pleaded “Not Guilty” on January 22nd to the charge of murder in the case of J. G. Morrison. Hill has been in the Salt Lake County Jail since his arrest.
District Attorney E. O. Leatherwood admits that all of the evidence against Joe Hill is circumstantial, but states that he will prove Hill’s guilt through a chain of circumstantial facts: 1). that a tall man in the company of a short man were seen near the store just before the murder of Morrison, 2). that Hill was that tall man, 3). that Morrison’s son fired at the men and wounded Hill, who then shouted that he had been shot, 4). that Hill was treated shortly thereafter for a gunshot wound, 5). that Hill was carrying a gun of the same type used in the murder while at the doctor’s office.
Joe has strenuously denied any involvement in this brutal double murder. He states that he was shot by a friend during an argument over a woman known to both of them. He states that he is confident that he will be acquitted. Others are not so sure, pointing out that Fellow Worker Joe Hill has already been found guilty of being a member of the Industrial Workers of the World.
From The Voice of the People of May 21, 1914:
JOE HILL’S TROUBLE
The following letter is published at the request of Fellow-worker Ed. Rowan, Secretary L. U. 69:
SALT LAKE CITY. May 2. 1914.
Voice of the People, New Orleans, La.:
Gentlemen–On January 10th, 1914, J. G. Morrison, ex-policeman, was shot at 9:31 p. m. in his grocery store by two masked men, in Salt Lake City, Utah. His son was also shot, but is supposed to have wounded one of the men first. Another son claims to have heard the shots and reached the store just as the masked men were running away.
Four days later at the house of his friends, seven miles front Salt Lake City, Joe Hill was arrested on information of a Dr. Bird, who drove him to Eselius’ home about 11:30 p. m. the night of the murder. Hill stated to the doctor who attended him that he had been shot at the house of a friend because the friend thought he had insulted his wife and that he did not want anything said as he knew the friend did not mean it.
Another son of the dead man claims to have identified Hill. Yet as the men were masked I don’t think much of the identification. We are defending him, but he states that he does not wish to involve his girl friend and will not state who shot him nor her name.
The main thing the State has against Hill is that he is an I. W. W. and therefore sure to be guilty. Hill tried to keep the I. W. W. out of it and denied it, but the papers fastened it on him. For this reason he is entitled to be helped and not allowed to hang for being an I. W. W. Every man is presumed to be innocent till proved guilty. It should not he necessary for him to prove his innocence, and it would not be if he was not an I. W. W.
Scott and MacDougall, per Scott.
(Attorneys for Joe Hill)
From The Salt Lake Tribune of June 2, 1914:
HILLSTROM TRIES TO PROVE A POINT
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Is Conducted to a Pawnshop in Effort to Show
Revolver Was of Small Caliber
———At his own request Joseph Hillstrom, accused of the murder of J. G. Morrison, was taken from the county jail yesterday to a pawnshop on West South Temple street, where he attempted to prove that he had purchased a revolver prior to the Morrison killing that was of a smaller caliber than the gun from which the fatal shot was fired.
The records at the shop showed that he had purchased a gun there last December 15, about four weeks before the murder of Morrison, but failed to show the caliber of the gun.
Hillstrom was crestfallen at his failure, but he declared he would prove that he had a gun which was of smaller caliber and that he threw it away just before his arrest following a quarrel over a woman.
Hillstrom goes to trial in the district court next Tuesday. He will contend that the bullet wound from which he was suffering at the time of his arrest was received in an “adventure” involving a woman and not from the gun fired by J. Arlin Morrison, the grocer’s son, before he too was shot down by the highwaymen. He refuses to disclose the name of the woman, declaring that he will go to his death rather than bring her name to light.
From The Salt Lake Tribune of June 11, 1914:
SECURE NO JURYMEN IN HILLSTROM CASE
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Trial of Man Charged with Morrison Murders
Begins in District Court.
———-Trial of Joseph Hillstrom, charged with the murder of J. G. Morrison, a grocer, in a hold-up of the grocery store last January 10, began in Judge M. L. Ritchie’s division of the district court yesterday. At closing hour no juror had been obtained, though four men had been passed by the defense and will be examined by the state this morning.
The men passed for cause by the defense are C. O. Dunshee, William Purt, Carl A. Miller and Joseph Mellon.
The state will rely on circumstantial evidence. Hillstrom was taken the day after the murder. He was suffering from a severe gunshot wound in the breast. It was known that young Arlin Morrison, who was murdered with his father, wounded one of the robbers in the fight.
Hillstrom maintained silence as to how he suffered the wound in his breast, but later he said that he received it in an affair over a woman, whose name he refused to disclose because, he said, to do so would endanger her honor.
Counsel for Hillstrom intimated yesterday that the woman would be put on the stand if necessary to save Hillstrom.
Note: Emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES
Quote Joe Hill, General Strike, Workers Awaken, LRSB p6, Oct 1919
https://archive.org/details/SongsOfTheWorkers15thEd/page/n9/mode/2up
The Case of Joe Hill
-by Philip s. Foner
International Pub, 1965
https://books.google.com/books?id=4CxM_t80dqoC
The Voice of the People
(New Orleans, Louisiana)
-May 21, 1914, p2
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/lumberjack/140521-voiceofthepeople-v3n21w072.pdf
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88064458/1914-05-21/ed-1/seq-2/
Salt Lake Tribune
(Salt Lake City, Utah)
-June 2, 1914
https://joehill.org/newspaper/jun021914.htm
-June 11, 1914
https://joehill.org/newspaper/jun111914.htm
IMAGE
Joe Hill, Joseph Hillstrom, Salt Lake Tribune p1, Jan 15, 1914
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045396/1914-01-15/ed-1/seq-1/
See also:
April 18, 1914, Solidarity p2
“Rally to Defense of Joe Hill”
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/solidarity-iww/1914/v05-w223-apr-18-1914-solidarity.pdf
May 23, 1914, Solidarity p1
“The Case of J. Hill” by Ed Rowan
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/solidarity-iww/1914/v05-w228-may-23-1914-solidarity.pdf
Articles from Salt Lake Tribune Jan-June 1914
https://joehill.org/newspaper.html
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 15, 1914
Salt Lake City, Utah – Joe Hill Arrested in Connection with Murder of Grocer and Son
Tag: Joseph Hillstrom
https://weneverforget.org/tag/joseph-hillstrom/
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